The World is a Stranger
by MangaTrial
Summary: The Powerpuff Girls are just 10 year olds who protect their beloved Townsville for many years. All that they have wanted to accomplish collapses as they collide into the Rowdyruff Boys again unexpectedly who are up to trouble, who knew better. But all the girls need is just to win… right?
1. Chapter 1 - Ten Year Olds

**The World is a Stranger**

**Hello guys! Long time no see, but you wouldn't even know me. I've decided to write another PPG story... and it's also been a few years since I have updated or went on Fanfiction. Apparently, I seem to keep trying to write a lot of PPG stories and just abandon them. So I hope this wouldn't be boring... So anyways…I'm very busy so I don't get the idea of going to Fanfiction really. You see, I have been doing a lot of things for the past few months – some games, some editing, some achieving, some writing, some stuff. And don't forget about school either! I don't know if this story will become as interesting, but I hope I didn't make the title sound useless for the most part.**

**I've written about these many ideas;**

**6 Feelings; Hate, Pain, Anger, Loneliness, Love, and Hurt.**

**Lonely - everyone in the story is lonely until they find a way to get out of it... -_-'.**

**Justice – my favorite one! Originally called "The Steps to Justice" where the Puffs and the Ruffs are all grown up to be 23-25 year olds and they have their jobs to fight crime and stuff... I had started writing it but then I just got lazy.**

**ABC - well, the point is to actually have every chapter start with the alphabet letter.**

**Missions - basically just missions they have to complete...**

**Novel - not really the title, just for the sake of remembering.**

**And now... finally, ''The World is a Stranger''... not sure if the title make any sense, but I will have to change it if I do want it changed *cough cough*. And I still might make mistakes like spelling or grammar in the story…so feedback is always welcomed too.**

**Long Summary: The Powerpuff Girls, now 10 years old, still fight crime for the sake of Townsville. And no, they do not get sick of it however, because that is their "job". The evil villains all had joined forces for the last three years and right now, the Powerpuff Girls will have to deal with the old counterparts once more, who knew better. All the girls need to do is trust their own feelings and actions, but could they really trust "trust"? But… they always win the villains… right?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls and everyone knows that. The plot is owned by me, however.**

* * *

The stranger had placed a chemical container inside a clearly displayed experiment that was perfectly laid across the lab table. While the chemical dissolved with the other substance, it did not make an explosion as the man had expected. He silently cursed to himself as he threw away the chemical and tried to instantly make a new combination. The time ticked across the laboratory, a lab that was big enough to hold a few doors that will lead to who knows what. It seems that he had set a timer at the clock, and all it needs to do its job was to ring over the entire room.

2 hours and 45 minutes had him worked so hard. But finally, the last drop of the chemical to the combined substance lead to an enormous explosion… well, not enormous enough to crack the whole laboratory. The evil genius had laughed wickedly, but he hid himself away with a smirk for the last. He turned to use his ears, hearing a familiar sound – the sound of something… floating or streaking from the hallways through his lair. You must have thought that it was the Powerpuff Girls… but what if it was something different, something _new_?

"About time, you boys!" the stranger helplessly pointed his index finger at the three figures that stood above him. No, not little boys, but boys that were soaring above the evil genius' own head. Each of them held a smirk that matched with the evil genius'.

"Watcha got there, Mojo?" there seems to be a leader of the gang of some sort. He had a serious smirk and was folding his arms, looking down at their fatherly figure. This boy was portrayed with red hair, red clothes, and even eyes; wow, a whole lot of red. Well, wouldn't that be another redhead? The only part of the change is that he didn't have long hair like the famous Powerpuff Blossom; he had regular length like all his brothers did. The thought of him speaking first was without a doubt though.

"Silence!" Mojo had called out with all 5 fingers now. "It is about time to show who you really are, boys. After 4 years, you guys disappeared in the mist, and now you are back to who you are; in the town of Townsville. Tell me now, boys, what you really want the most!" Mojo had already had his own two hands spread out like a wing, motioning the boys to come closer. Whatever they want, that is, Mojo Jojo might give them…

The three boys landed on the ground and seemed to have taken aback as if they hadn't stepped on the earth's crust for so long anymore. You can call that they might have felt a sensation down their spines. The two other boys followed behind the redheaded leader, their grins widening even more. This could only be bad news if that does it. As soon as they had reached their fatherly figure, the green one slowly opened his lips;

"What we want, huh?" he had tried to continue talking more, but he decided to end it the way that was, trying to play with the monkey's head. His cowlick was straightened in a professional way that almost made this boy seem like a weak boy, but he was sure tougher! There was a scar under his left eye that stretched to the cheeks as an ending; this is enough to realize that he wants a fight more than anything. After all, he seemed to be in really good shape still.

"We will tell you what we want!" the last boy sprouted, holding a grin. Poor boy, he tried to make his grin look more like his brothers, but it didn't work out as expected. His face was really rounded and seemed lifeless, maybe because he hadn't had a real fight since ever. His posture was good enough, his position of his hands and his stance was all accurate for a fighter, but Mojo could already justify it all as pathetic and that this boy never even let a single thing hit him at all for the past 4 years.

"And it's only one thing," the redhead ended with an evil glare, bringing his brothers together with him. The three boys all formed a circle with Mojo like they need to discuss plans together. The four of them whispered something that only top secret soldiers would never even want to hear or be strong enough to kill.

* * *

Townsville's been nerve racking ever since the last three years. The citizens, the people who reside in the town, contain no worries whatsoever because there _is _the Powerpuff Girls. For the girls, it is not a very different story. As long as they have some crime going, Buttercup would kick them to the end. However, for the last few weeks, something's been up around the town, more of a rumor. But that is not the point right now, and it wouldn't even have been called rumor if it wasn't for the word rumor.

Everything was like a nuisance in Townsville after all; monsters keep coming and crashing, Powerpuffs keep flying and defeating and winning. There was obviously no point of fighting again if the girls were ever to win, and that also hints why some citizens want the Powerpuff Girls to have their first defeat. Well, the citizens all know what will happen next if the girls do lose, Townsville will be doomed and destroyed. The villains will take over the world and the people will die.

That explains almost all the things Townsville is ever responsible of enclosing. While the newspapers always hold the Powerpuff stories as the top news, people still get sick of hearing and reading the same things over and over again, correct? Today's news headline stated in big, bold letters of "New Discovery Revealed That Powerpuff Bubbles Protested In Order To Win". Well, catchy title that is, but not enough to actually hold the true intentions of a particular Powerpuff Bubbles, right?

In those evening streets, liter and recycled things or trash will likely be found. However for the day, the usual Puff that guard around the town for tiniest of tiny things that could happen isn't in the mood, for the sake of being temporary alright. Buttercup crumbled up the newspaper she just bought with 5 cents after reading the headline. With her feet, she considers it as good use to stomp on the crumbled paper, throwing it at the nearby trashcan with a perfect aimed shot. The others who were trying to read their newspapers on the "Waiting for Bus Seats" all stared at Buttercup with expressions that were either of nothing, about to burst into bubbles, or mockery.

She had ignored the faces that were landed upon her arrival to deal with other things. "Stupid newspapers, stupid rumor that started it all!" she placed her hands on her pant pockets before crashing blindly to a concrete wall. "Okay, stupid place in town too." She realized that she was so obsessed of dealing with what happened on the newspapers that she forgot to even fly. But now that she got the chance to, she started streaking the dawning sky back to their household.

The door cracked open from the inside as soon as the raven head came flying home, hitting her full head against the door. She let out a sigh and glared at the person who was standing in front of her, covering her nose and to test if anything got bruised up.

"Butter-buttercup!" the blonde head was squealing, jumping up and down like crazy frogs that only live in houses. It was hard to tell if she was happy or sad. "Th-they said it all wrong!" Buttercup's eyes rolled as soon as Bubbles' right hand came into view with today's newspaper.

The green puff flew to the couch, her new location for the day. She grabbed the remote controller and switched to her favorite TV channel only to have the news channel interrupt every single time. "Shocking as it is, we have found out that Bubbles Utonium, the joy and the laughter of the Powerpuff Girls group, were protesting the day before she won. This was written on the Townsville Site and while you are there, you can find many reasons and evidence as to why, also brought to you by peers and villains that Bubbles encountered with. Well, that's it for today's big story. But, what are your opinions, citizens of Townsville? What are you waiting for, go to wwwdottownsvilenewsdotcom now!"

Buttercup didn't bother switching channels for this matter; she knew she couldn't let herself grinning when Bubbles stood in the door to watch the loud TV and what the news reporter had just announced. Whatever Bubbles' reaction was, Buttercup didn't care as she switched back to her favorite sports channel. If she was back to her earlier self, Buttercup could have smashed the TV and rant all day long.

Pieces of papers floated its way towards the ground, attracting the forces together. The blonde puff flew to her room, locking herself up. She might have been crying, but she realized that crying doesn't solve anything at all… of course. She laid her head down and banged on her desk with one of her free hands. That caused one of her notebooks to drop down to her face, making her wake up from the position.

"Alright, this is really what I wanted! To express my real feelings down the pipe in this notebook!" she tears out some lined paper from the book to start a fresh new subject.

* * *

The sound of the front door opening wildly caused Buttercup to look back. Why yes, the door was not working right after Buttercup came home, and whoever it was on the outside of the door was distracting her. She wouldn't mind if it was Professor Utonium, but she knew all along that it might have been Blossom who came back from her after school class. Blossom's capable of going to extra classes before she even got to start Middle School and she knew that it wouldn't hurt to join with other students that were trying to get the best in education.

"Buttercup! Bubbles!" the raven head once more had turned her head back, annoyed. She already got the opposite reaction from Bubbles… but now, she wanted to stay focused on the TV Screen. And all that Blossom was mimicking in the doorway is going through her nerves. Blossom didn't need help for just a door, right? Or was it that tone?

"What have you done to the door!?" Damn. Buttercup shut the TV off and touched her head. Option one of having Blossom stuck in the doorway was of course wrong. Option two of having Blossom starting an argument after she entered the half-dead door was of course correct.

Buttercup could only think of ignoring and saying nothing, but not that she would like to admit defeat to her sister for catching her doing the wrong thing to especially a door… "Dude, don't talk to me, I'm not in the mood, go cheer your little Bubbles," Buttercup rejected life. She's been cold to her two sisters right after she turned 9, yes, that's a year in case you have forgotten. She grabbed her belongings and flew to her bedroom door. Before she entered, she glared at Blossom and opened first before closing loudly.

"O-okay…" the leader girl made her feel comfortable at home and disdain what had just happened. Well, she seems to be missing the point here… Then she, being the oldest sister, hurried to Bubbles door to see if anything had happened. "What's wrong, Bubbles?" was the only thing she could blurt when silently placed her fists to knock on the bedroom door.

The door slowly opened to reveal the youngest sister of the Utonium family. She was a beautiful girl with pigtails that were of a shiny color and always seem to match her outfit with her best expressions. The girl had sighed and opened the door widely before she went back to her desk.

"I guess I will come in then," Blossom stepped on the newly designed wooden floor in today's furniture. The room was a bit childish, contained with toys and happy things. The walls were of the shade blue to represent the skies. If Blossom was to ever feel at peace, then the place where Bubbles truly felt herself would be the one. Bubbles had decided many times to paint the walls with her artistic thoughts only to have Professor disagree. He told her that walls are not toys and she isn't supposed to be a little kid anymore.

"So… I heard that you maybe had a bad day," Blossom easily grabbed a chair from hiding under one of Bubbles' drawing desks. She unfolded the chair to sit on it. "Would you mind sharing?" But in the leader girl's head, you wouldn't know how big of her logic could contain… '_Oh boy, did she look a little off_.' Blossom liked to help people get out of their Lala World, if that was where Bubbles ended up residing, and try to solve their problems… but she was scared of the fact that Bubbles would use imagination to mix with her logic. Nope, that was actually not it. She was scared that head of her sister must have dominated sad emotions instead of happy emotions (which shouldn't be happening), separating their sister-ship if possible (that is if she gets in a fight if she couldn't solve any problems).

"I guess," the blonde girl didn't look at the pink puff though. She exhaled before continuing. "Well, you see the newspaper today had me all locked up. They got it wrong for who I am."

Blossom scratched her head before getting out and retrieving the newspaper lying on the front door. She made her way back to the bubbly's room and carefully read the top news. When she was finished, she sighed, but she was probably keeping another emotion inside of herself, "Bubbles… I understand; all you read was the headline."

Bubbles had nodded her head in an instinct, but then she gazed to Blossom's direction with stunning eyes. How…how could Blossom say that? How could she say that when the headline was so horrible! What she didn't notice was the next thing that happened. Blossom wholeheartedly laughed!

"Wh-why are you laughing?" Bubbles' face turned red, and once again, hard to tell if she was embarrassed or mad. "This isn't funny at all! Are you one of my peers!?"

The leader girl stopped laughing in a matter when she was dealt with the anger her sister gave in. Bubbles' eyes were wide open and she didn't want to hide the fact that she was scared to make herself look uglier when she did that. "Okay, I understand everything, girl! Take for an example, when you read the headline, what caught you the most attention?" Blossom, using her index finger, pointed at the newspaper headline wide enough for Bubbles to see again.

"Well, they said I protested in order to ''win''!"

"Okay, that explains that you must have only looked at the word "win" and got the wrong definition for "protesting", correct?"

"How is it wrong, Blossom?! The definition of protesting is objecting!"

"Well, there has got to be more meaning to it, right? Protesting is doing something that you are capable of doing, capable of proving yourself. As you said, objecting. You objected at what those villains said about you and proved your true intention; that is why they use a strong word like "protesting". Protesting is usually something that is a result of negativity in your mind, so that is why you gave in yourself so much. Townsville knows that you, being the joy and the laughter, would want to protest… well, I wouldn't really say "protest". They used the wrong word, well that's because they want to make catchy titles. So anyway, they know you would prove yourself in order to win." She really spoke it all, everybody would prove their self to win.

The blonde head's anger boiled down to her melting point. Her eyes blinked as she examined Blossom's happy smile. "R-really?"

"Aha! That really explains you didn't even read the paragraphs, only the headline!" the smile on the leader's face instantly faded away and out came a burst of laughter.

"Be quiet! So what did the paragraphs say?" Now the blue one was interested in her story for the news.

Blossom smiled once more, "What I had explained, well, more complicated version, I guess. I only summarized it and "explained" while they "described". The news company had totally accomplished of what's a good title." Blossom stood up from the chair and bent over to pat on Bubbles' head. "Don't let them get to you-"

"Wait! Buttercup… she seemed to be like…" Bubbles was having a hard time finding the right words until Blossom finished it for her;

"Seemed shocked for the headline as well? Okay, let me tell you," Blossom grabbed the remaining chair and scooted over to sit next to Bubbles. "Buttercup's attitude is cold, but inside her heart, she wanted you to understand what the news really tried to say – I reckon that you must have watched the news with her? She may have been angered about the headline, but I'm sure she also skimmed over the text and came up with "Stupid rumors". The rumors around town are about three months old and they are all about villains, okay? Buttercup wasn't angry at the headline at all, she was only angry whenever she saw the top news with our days of fighting again. The last few days, I bought newspapers with her and noticed that she gets angry whenever the top news were placed on Powerpuff topics and to only hide her anger; she say "stupid rumors". She feels neglected with our group, so that is why she hates Powerpuff topics in the top news."

Bubbles was almost on the verge of tears and the leader girl only rolled her eyes. "Why is Buttercup like that?"

The redhead stood up for the last time, sighing, knowing that Bubbles of course would ask this. Duh, she was the nicest and the most kind of the two Puffs, so of course she would ask this… and not that it was a bad question. She would risk her life to know about what people were thinking, especially why they are cold or evil, just to fix their emotions. She's just too caring like that, but the sisters can't blame her. "That is a question that's been bugging me since. I never really understood her, and I tried connecting with her… but she always has a better chance of getting her way. To her, she feels neglected from our team… but in the opposite minds, we feel neglected from her because we are supposed to be sisters and a team." Blossom had slowly made her way to the hallway; she smiled back at Bubbles before going to work on homework or whatever she intended to do.

Just be glad that Blossom smiled to herself, for she had solved another one of her sister's problems, no matter if it was threatening or not important at all.

* * *

The next day at school for Blossom was supposed to be peace and quiet as always. Ms. Keane, yeah, still unmarried and still a teacher as her life career is Blossom's 5th grade teacher. The girls attended Elementary for the past few years and always got separate classes while Ms. Keane kept moving along with the redhead every year. She now teaches 5th grade in the same class as Blossom, who loves her like a mother. Ms. Keane was writing some math questions on the board when suddenly, Blossom felt bugged;

There was a strange feeling around her, it seemed as if there was someone watching her do her work and everything since the day had started. Her desk, having placed with another desk right next to her (everybody has a partner), felt abnormal. She tried to shook everything that kept her locking to the subject of a mysterious person watching her, but her mind felt uncomfortable. She tried to come up with the idea of just thinking random things, having not enough sleep, or maybe another imaginary friend appeared.

That is… when something happened which caused her classmates to stare at her. Blossom was compelled on still working on the most complicated, complex, and challenging math problems on the worksheet Ms. Keane handed out only 2 minutes ago. She noticed that she was being watched… but this time, not only one, but almost half of the faces from the class. Ms. Keane was still writing on the board; make that a great chance to deal with the stares.

Blossom had had one of her hand elbowed to the surface of the desk while her fingers rested at her head. It didn't take long for her to speak, "W-what? You aren't telling me that half of you are trying to stare at my answers for these tricky math questions, right?"

One kid had started to laugh which caused one half of the original half class to laugh. She straightened her posture and rolled her eyes, "I'm seri- GAH!" Her face had been turned towards her partner desk… it was supposed to be empty! She was the only one without a partner… but… what in the world is happening?

"What the!" she had yelled, thankfully, she controlled her volume for the class; Ms. Keane was still incautious of what's happening behind her back. "Why in the name of Blossom are you here?!"

Her "partner" smirked, yet he even grabbed Blossom's work to compare with his own brains. "Well, your new classmate, of course."

"Brick, I'm serious, why are you here!" she forcefully took back her papers and straightened them. She was actually quite shocked at herself for mentioning his name, in which she suspended from saying after the boys were last seen. "Last time I checked, I haven't had a partner and haven't heard of a transfer student introduce himself to the class at all."

The other redhead smirked even more widely now. Blossom didn't take anything serious at the current moment and raised her hand high enough for Ms. Keane to see. Well, too bad, she was still writing on the board…

Then the leader girl would have taken it the other way, "Ms. Keane!" Blossom called only to have Ms. Keane say "Just a moment, Blossom."

The red Rowdyruff stared at the class, "Okay, so maybe you are so "popular" after all, in this class. Half of the class is looking at you because I'm here and even the teacher knew you called her." He beamed before standing up, folding his arms. "She won't listen to you, Bossy. Let's take it outside!" He grabbed her long hair, causing her to stand up to try to take his hands out. He shoved her to the wall, causing Ms. Keane to look at the scene. For five seconds though. Because Brick's shove had Blossom crash inside two classrooms before exiting the building, Ms. Keane gasped before examining the whole situation. Brick hopped into the hole Blossom had messed on the wall to join her outside. Ms. Keane didn't get a good glimpse of what the redheaded boy looked like in just those 5 seconds. Maybe she even thought about repeating the whole process.

* * *

"Buttercup!" one of the green puff's teammates cried out. "Be the goalie, please!?" Well, seems like it was soccer time while Blossom was having a fun time with school.

The green puff sighed, "Got it! Someone take the position of striker!" She had gave up of being the Striker just hearing her teammates and joining as the goalie. But she didn't have any worry though, she was pretty good at being the goalkeeper because she blocked out every ball that got in her way. She readied herself with the goalie stance and waited for the whistle to blow.

The whistle had blown, leaving Buttercup rolling her eyes instantly when her team's striker didn't even get the ball. A long day it is, alright.

Their team had only got one minute left from all that playing, with the score of 13 to 20. Buttercup jumped wildly at the big gap between the numbers from the scoreboard. Okay… that was a mad jump. The team noticed how furious Buttercup was and they gathered around to fix in defense instead of attacking.

There were only 54 seconds left and the gap increased by 14 to 23. The other group sure got some strong players, beating the entire defense that Buttercup's team presented. The green puff was really mad because she usually didn't like corner kicks which got her eyes moving before planning like what Blossom would do. But this time, she increased in energy and blocked out every ball that bounced from the grass to her direction.

The time was left with fifteen seconds. Buttercup had her team closing up with 19 to 24. She motioned her team to make the outside kick because she studied that the opposite team hadn't done that skill yet. The opposite team might have not been expecting for the outside kick because if their team did, it would have surprised all the opponents.

One of her teammates made the outside kick, but that opponent had been studying the ground and was enough to make the kick miss out. Before the others could get back at him, the opponent backward passed the ball to his teammates. In just a few seconds, Buttercup blocked the ball and her team went to retrieve it and increased speed to kick the ball to the other goalie a few more times to have the final score of 23 to 24. Buttercup face palmed and grunted before flying toward the fake crowds. She landed on the ground to walk up the small stairs to the changing room only to have something knock her down.

She grunted again, rubbing her temples and staring at the ball that just pecked her in the head. She studied the ball and turned to the direction of where the ball came from, glaring at the person who slowly made his way towards the green puff. Buttercup had her eyes wide and tried to stand up while having the glare locked upon her "new" opponent.

"You?" Buttercup didn't want to call out a name at all; she found it useless for right now. She was still rubbing her temples, glaring at the person in front of her. What else could she have done?

The person had probably expected her to say more, "Yeah, let's take it on with another soccer game with one versus one." He grabbed her by the wrist and swung her towards the far end of the field. Who else could have enough strength to do that, you must be thinking?

"Why you!" Buttercup wasn't particularly mad, but she didn't like it when people take her on with another game without her agreement. She stood up and made contact with him from afar. She almost forgot that the players and her teammates were still on the field, confused at the whole scene. "Guys, just go get changed. I have a little meeting with Mister Strong here." She knuckled her hands and was ready to face off with the opponent she called Mister Strong. The rest of the players all went to the changing room as she had ordered.

"Before we start playing soccer or whatever, I want to tell you that I came here only to FIGHT!" Mister Strong explained, fiddling with his hoodie, apparently. But not to forget that he held an evil smirk, plastered on his face.

Buttercup grinned, "Oh, I haven't had a tough fight for years, Mister Butch!" She tightened her fists and came dashing at her old counterpart, Butch.

* * *

Bubbles' usual morning day was not school as it was supposed to be for every student. She was clustered in her own world of art, enjoying the masterpieces that lay conspicuously on the desks. Other students gathered around her table to look at the artwork, jealousy filled their eyes. Bubbles had eventually forgotten about yesterday's newspaper headline after all.

"Aww, Bubbles! I think that you already won the Art Contest this year," one of the girls from the gathered group blurted.

The blonde head nervously smiled, "Oh, thank you, but that would never be such a thing. Besides, the results are not here visibly in our eyes yet, so even if my artwork was good enough to win; it will just never make it to the top."

The girl held a sad face, "Bubbles, why are you underestimating yourself? Art is everything to you, correct? Bubbles, I'm sure if you didn't get number one, you will get number two either way!" All the other students that gathered around her table all lighted up, agreeing to the girl.

"Oh, why thank you, but that is until we see the results," Bubbles piled her artwork into one stack to keep the students away from her table.

A laugh from the center was soon revealed to be the location of the art teacher. She was standing on top of two stairs with a speech in hand. She straightened up the papers and tested the microphone to see if it was dead. "Testing, testing, testing…" The laugh from the teacher was like a ringing bell to keep the students silent and pay attention to usual speeches.

"Alright, class!" the art teacher had started after successfully testing with the microphone. "Today is the results for this year's Art Contest! I, Miss Moore, was the final judge of all the contest entries submitted from the timespan of last week to yesterday. And… unexpectedly, yesterday's latest submission won first place."

Every student in the class sighed, knowing that none of them made it to first place. This class had entered the results last week and had it all returned today, so none of them would have gotten first place from yesterday's surprise.

"However, one student from this class won second!" Miss Moore announced, yet only a few students cheered while the rest of the class ooed and ughed. The class soon waited patiently for the teacher to announce the student's name; you can almost see that some students were still high in hopes with stars in their eyes while some students were just nervous to have their name called if that was possible. "Let's congratulate Miss Utonium, Miss Bubbles Utonium!" Miss Moore had grabbed a piece of certificate as Bubbles nervously stood up to make her way to the teacher. She was awarded with the certificate for being nominated as second place, but the teacher also told her that she will get a prize at the end of the day.

Bubbles started retracing back to where she sat and sighed; she had just survived some audience looking people that made uncomfortable stares at her. Some students that sat next to her clapped and congratulated Bubbles directly. The blue puff only nodded as a reply. Not to be rude, okay.

"Third place goes to another student, sorry to announce that this student isn't in this class," Miss Moore continued, she seemed to be in a hurry to say something else… because she brightened, ready to speak. "But let's talk a little about the first place mystery person. He is not really a student from this art school-"

"Then that's cheating!" one of the class clown shrieked. You can tell that he was really opposed to this decision of having the mystery person get first place. The whole class all knew that the first rule was not to interrupt the teacher when she is making a speech or didn't even finish reciting or something yet… but they were just surprised that Miss Moore didn't warn the class clown at all this time. Gladly said for the class clown…

"But due to last week's change, participants from artists like this mystery boy could enter the contest. He possesses some really good art skills; I would have been impressed if I were to see him draw with my very own eyes. And in accordance to the first judge, he made his entries all due to effort in a timeless meaning, so we should congratulate him for working so hard. And within the second judge's assumptions, he hurriedly entered the contest because he wanted to visit the school, meaning that he used his entries as joining the school. Though the details are still a bit unknown, we have the information of his intentions… that is to finally compete with Bubbles Utonium."

Everybody's eyes landed on the blue puff who sat all the way in the back. As soon as her name was being called again, Bubbles eyes suddenly sparked, she was being the center of attention again. 'Now who is this mystery boy, trying to compete with me? Nobody ever did that before.' She mentally thought.

"And… the principal of the art academy asked me to have Bubbles meet him in his office. Like… right now," the last sentence wouldn't have been a joke because she was looking at her watch. "It must be really important; the principal didn't tell me anything more." The teacher eyed Bubbles, giving her the "You Know What To Do" look. Bubbles sighed and pushed her chair back to the table after she was no longer sitting, promenading towards the door.

If the teacher didn't say "Like… right now", Bubbles vowed that she would have refused to meet with the principal for whatever he wanted to declare about. The principal was known to be very artistic, but she couldn't bring herself to talk to the principal because that would ruin her chance of having his signature for her autographs. She walked alone in the hallways until she met the door of the office.

Sighing, she pushed the knob of the door… be glad that she didn't bring anything with her because if she had, she would be dropping all her things down, staring at whoever was in front of her.

'_No way_.' Bubbles' mind was collapsing her voice, she was shocked… no, more of surprised to see the mystery boy she now knew… Bubbles couldn't have known that the principal tried to bring the famous Bubbles Utonium to his office just for this "competition" with the mystery person. This totally ruined her chance of her nice behavior that she always wanted to display for the principal, not that she never was good behavior; it was only because she couldn't bring herself to make this the truth. That… one of her long enemies' face was right in front of her.

No more autographs. No more chances of talking to the principal from how she wanted it to be. No more artwork. No more picturing and imagining things in her mind. No more of those… because now she will be fighting again, with this mystery boy. Just thinking and trying to understand what the situation she is going to take care of right now.

'_This just couldn't be any better_.' Bubbles thought hard sighing to open the door even wider. The principal greeted her… but Bubbles thought it would have been better if another situation was even more "important" or just to congratulate her for passing the contest and ended up being second place. And yet, talking about opposites attract or whatnot, the principal was probably even more excited to see two students in his room… whether they had the same looks or hair color, or maybe if they were going to add another student who was third place… but talking about principals, the principal just was so excited that the situation he called "important" was involved with this mystery person. He might not even know why the mystery person called for Bubbles Utonium in a stuck up competition or something much evil than that.

The force between the two students seemed powerful that almost time was taken aback. It just seems like that Bubbles would never get this day off of her head as much as she wanted to. And once more, do remember that all her visual thinking is gone just for facing this "person".

And yes… Bubbles, being the last puff to encounter this awkward situation, came face to face with the mystery boy, Boomer. Her old counterpart.

* * *

**Okay, maybe not a good start. But still want to take some feedback… I will see if my weekly update goes well *cough cough*. This chapter was supposed to be more of a ready in position chapter for the story. So the Rowdyruff Boys came back from leaving Townsville for 4 years… well, calculate their age if you want. That should be easy though. Aside from that, I won't be saying anything more about their comeback for right now.**

**So anyway, the next chapter would just be about the boys and the girls having a fight or whatnot. I will have to see if that goes well after all. Well, I mean, the story wouldn't be so decent enough to talk about. And as the third chapter comes up, to my estimation, things will go out of hand… but not really. And guess what, I guess more fighting…**

**I haven't come back for Fanfiction, so I would say that this story would be considered something like a first one. So… if you want, slip a review for the story and tell me if you enjoyed it or something. I would appreciate anything from critique, feedback, commentary, or just a positive review. Questions and or concerns are also welcomed too.**

**See you guys next week, hopefully…**


	2. Chapter 2 - Typical Encounters

**The World is a Stranger**

**So how has everybody been doing in the past week? I quickly finished this chapter before a week really came, so I hope I didn't put too much boredom in the text. Special thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter very much, I appreciated it. I guess I will answer some reviews;**

**First Guest and ROCuevas – Thanks very much for the kind reviews. I hope I didn't make it boring any further, so you will see if this chapter will come out great.**

**Story reader – I will answer questions from reviews as I have said before, but most of your questions will be explained in this chapter… so I hope it doesn't disappoint at all, hopefully.**

**Second Guest – Thanks for the review, and as said above with Story reader, I accept questions from reviews. Bubbles did have the hardest part because I really had a hard time writing it and no, Boomer didn't want to do that on purpose. I won't be explaining that part on the chapter, so I will answer you. The principal just had to meet the artistic mystery boy, so he called for him there when Boomer wanted to find Bubbles by himself. The two other puffs really got into a fight, but that doesn't mean Boomer and Bubbles don't get one though.**

**Long Summary: The Powerpuff Girls, now 10 years old, still fight crime for the sake of Townsville. And no, they do not get sick of it however, because that is their "job". The evil villains all had joined forces for the last three years and right now, the Powerpuff Girls will have to deal with the old counterparts once more, who knew better. All the girls need to do is trust their own feelings and actions, but could they really trust "trust"? But… they always win the villains… right?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls and everyone knows that. The plot is owned by me, however.**

* * *

Why did the Rowdyruff Boys appear out of nowhere… and in different locations too? Blossom's got a major school problem she would need to solve after she finished her aftermath with Brick; Buttercup's careless of what happens anyway, only minding on a tough fight; and Bubbles has no idea whatsoever to face upon her counterpart in front of a PRINCIPAL?

The girls all held the same expressions as they met in contact with their counterparts, well except for Buttercup who took the situation as a piece of cake.

The leader girl had tried with several attempts to stand up carefully, rubbing her temples and blinking her eyes to see if this was really a dream. But to her surprise, this wasn't any dream, it was reality and she had to face it. She had crashed into two classrooms before exiting out the building and landing on the platform of the school. Fortunately, she had stopped the mess from the crash when she slammed her body to a concrete wall, making her drop and creating a figure on the front panel.

She effortlessly stood up, but her opponent could see stars flying around her head. She ventured out, "Is that all you-"

Slam. She was punched in the face by her opponent before she could finish her sentences. "-got…" Blossom was out from her Lala World right then and there; her whole body, having charged up energy, was ready to fight with this boy. A punch in the face got her fully awake, and now it must be her turn to return the punch.

The two redheads dashed at each other, each throwing out random powers to erase down their opponents. But the leader girl realized that this is a useless idea because she was supposed to plan first before attacking! Buttercup style, is it? The Pink puff flew away from him and stayed airborne, thinking hard for a plan. But rather than a plan, she was actually trying to solve why he was here.

Since the leader boy was full of ambition, a plan won't go his way if he hadn't crushed that enemy yet. He was a leader who liked to plan and fight at the same time, pretty reckless and straightforward. He knew that by attacking her, he just used one of his tactical plans inside his brains kept all along for any battle. "You do realize that you are about to be defeated." And with that said, he punched her in the stomach and she let out a gasp.

Even though the leader girl recovered for a few seconds, she shot up a glare and remained like a boss in control. "Well? You do know that my plans are going to work, just don't forget to look up," Blossom played along. With satisfaction from the pink puff, the leader boy did, unfortunately, look up to see if anything was amiss. What he didn't know was that Blossom switched her dialogue "don't forget to look ahead" to "don't forget to look up", resulting her to use her eye beams to fire him awake.

He grunted; his face boiling with anger, "You will get it this time!" He dashed at her, forgetting all the plans he wanted to use, and made several kicks only to have a few dodged from his opponent. His opponent held a serious face, in which he took the time to study her while still firing attacks. She hadn't changed much of course; red hair and bow, pink clothes and eyes. That was pretty much it, but she seemed to be more mature than the last time he had last seen her.

"Forget about the fight for now!" the red ruff retreated, flying backwards to keep their distance apart. He had held up one of his hands for defense while his whole body seemed to be slacking off already.

Blossom's stance faded away and she faced her counterpart with eye contact, "But you were the one who started the fight-"

"That is true, but I came here for another reason as well," he may have interrupted the leader girl but he still explained a bit to his arrival. The boy walked closer to Blossom, and you can tell that he was taking his time.

"Oh then that's everything now," Blossom blurted, raising her eyebrows and bringing her hands to a fold. "You will have to tell me why you are here, Brick. In what way did you think you had the right to sit on the seat next to me?" Blossom knew that this question was better off not asked because school is not important at this moment. What she wanted to figure out the most was why he suddenly appeared next to her, further taking her to a fight outside of school.

Brick had their distance from 2 feet to 5 inches apart now. He only held a blank expression, "What do you think, Bossy? I came here to take you to hell, of course." Blossom wouldn't have noticed his evil smirk because she didn't even have the time to recognize that he was actually tricking her. They were of course still in battle mode! Brick had shoved her to another building, making the same process of having her crash into two houses.

"Is that what you came here for? How foolish!" Blossom recovered from the attack and flew straight at him, blowing ice breath. However, he managed to dodge the attack when he suddenly used howling to break her ears off. Well, not like her ears _really _broke off.

The two had continued to fight endlessly, each trying to accomplish their best to win the opposite opponents. That is until Brick broke it once more, "Alright, I will tell you the other reason-"

Smashed in the face by his opponent's hands… "You should answer me why you disappeared first!" She wiped blood that was plastered around her face, and you could tell that she was panting from the fight.

And of course, her opponent wouldn't just hand out the answer to her, "Fighting the Powerpuff Girls is better than anything, so that's why we came back." He smirked again, and Blossom just knew that he was in a loss of words. That can't be the only reason why they were gone, right? Or did he even answer that at all?

"Okay, Brick, let's just compromise," Blossom held out her hands for defense as she slowly reached her counterpart. "I know that you guys disappeared because you kept losing, right? Alright, I won't make you guys win, but I better make everything right for people too. Just a little taste of victory and you can-"

The leader girl was not interrupted or cut off, but instead she stood there realizing what she just said while looking at the dark and gloomy aura of her counterpart. '_Well… okay… maybe I said the opposite I meant to say. I only want to help make a good day for whomever, even if they were my enemies, for what they tried to attain for more than 4 years.'_ The thoughts circled violently around her, whipping her to a who knows what world.

Brick flew straight at the leader girl, grasping her long hair and swirling her to the wall, leaving her falling to the ground. Before she got the chance to react to the attack, he stepped on her left hand but she didn't let out a cry. He found it less entertaining if she didn't cry, so he bent down to pick her up from the collars which left her legs airborne. She tried to let go of his grasp, but who knows what he will do in the next second.

He made one last punch to Blossom in the eye and released his grasp.

* * *

The two raven heads weren't even playing soccer anyway. The rest of the players and teammates got changed and left hurriedly when they heard an explosion from the soccer field, boy it must have been some magical power. Being the two toughest fighters of their siblings, these greens just didn't even know how to make a plan before their fighting. They will ignore the instructions and hit straight on without even listening through the whole thing.

Okay… no talk at all either. Each of them tried to back away whenever the opposite opponent caught the other one, allowing them to make few little plans on trying not to reveal their locations. This time Buttercup went after the tough green ruff after he released smoke to cover up his destination, not ever selecting giving up on a fight they hadn't had for years. She smirked when that little cowlick of Butch was easily sighted, giving her the highest chance of winning. She hid behind one of those fences across the fake crowds. '_Glad that his own smoke did the work to hide me from letting him come any closer._'

Buttercup was a fan of watching detective and cop shows. She's been calculating those moves of the guards and the tactic ways the police force move their feet to hide from being seen behind boxes and loads of stuff. Too bad she didn't have a weapon, not that she needed one, but it would be so much fun if she were to be one of those detectives she depended on being. While this battle must have the same reasoning as hiding behind loads of cargo or various, Buttercup took this location as the place for hiding herself from the smoke. She grinned when she found a soccer ball lying flat on the ground, but that grin of hers faded away as she thought about some possibilities.

Butch might have seen where the ball was, wherever he was hiding. Or Butch could have effortlessly placed the ball to lure her to reveal her location. Whatever it was, she didn't intend to grab the ball to use as a weapon or this time, maybe luring him instead. She searched through the whole fence with the best locations of hiding and finally came close to that cowlick of Butch's. '_Okay… so he still hasn't moved? Hide and seek alright._'

She jumped in front of her opponent, ready to attack. She smashed him all the way to the concrete wall with an evil grin in her face. Oh yes, that face was the best. She never really calculated right though, even if she had pinned him to the wall before reaching the ground, he couldn't have struggled to get out of the grasp for air, right? So then why did he not even make a sound? '_Damn that smoke, still can't really see things correctly._'

Before she could jump into a conclusion, she noticed that the figure in front of her wasn't particularly Butch… was it one of her teammates? No way. That just couldn't be right, they all disappeared! And even if they were still in the field, they could have cried for help in the smoke…

She took a few seconds to examine the person, and as soon as that had happened, her high chance of winning is a failure. Serves Buttercup right for not planning first. That was just a replica of Butch, oh how dare he had decoyed her. She smashed the replica into tiny pieces and murmured '_If that was the real Butch, then my day would have ended great?_'

The green puff turned around and caught the surprise out of her. There she was abruptly interrupted by the face of her counterpart, the real Butch now. He was just standing in front of her, watching what she had done to fighting a replica. That was a bitter fool. Buttercup grunted and flew straight at him, but unfortunately he reacted instinctually and sent her flying to the wall.

"Like I would let you smash me into pieces like that!" Butch shouted loud enough for the green puff to hear. Her stage of having so many bruises wasn't over yet; she recovered with her super durability and charged up. She threw her hands at the ground and it sent shockwaves to Butch's feet. The next thing he knew, he was the one flying without control to the other side of the wall.

Buttercup's job was easy; all she had to do was react differently to the compulsive attacks Butch fires. Battle after battle, she kept that plan for a long time until Butch finally copied her previous attack. She had sent a few fist generations to her counterpart with the next of releasing Green Solar. Well, now that her plan was a little ruined, Butch copied the previous attack and now she needs to find another way to get out of the mess. If she used Green Solar, the ability to absorb some of her opponent's powers and release down with ultra-radiation, she could lose balance and invulnerability. That was her only chance since Butch couldn't copy that.

The green puff still backed up her plan of using Green Solar because it would hurt her as much as it hurt her opponent. The components of using the Green Solar will mess up her thinking and she needs to wait 30 seconds to recover, much slower than her usual time of recovering in two seconds. The first usual sign of Green Solar was used when Blossom and Bubbles were training for fighting (opponents of Buttercup who worked by herself). The two other puffs combined powers and blast them at Buttercup, thinking that she couldn't win all by herself if it wasn't for _leader girl_. Buttercup used her way of dodging the attacks like always; keeping her invulnerability at hand… until she let them all hit her. She stood airborne and agreed to the fact that she wasn't scared of any bombs, weapons, lasers, etc. that hit her directly. A few destructions to her body organs wouldn't hurt much since she was superhuman; besides Professor could easily fix that!

Buttercup's reaction to the powers went negative; she was absorbing their powers without even knowing it. And when she does, she could feel a weight in her powers. The capacity of powers the Green Solar could absorb is approximately four different combined powers and about ten different individual powers. And at that time, she absorbed her sister's powers and thinking that they had no more attacks to reveal, she attempted to fire a laser beam at her sisters only to realize that her laser beam was a combination of all the powers her sisters used at her. And oh boy did her sisters fell into the march of death… No pun intended. Buttercup was quite shocked to see what she did, but was also proud until she incautiously relapsed. Her sisters had several seconds to recover before Buttercup could fist punch them since she realized 30 seconds did the work. And that was pretty much the first appearance of her new power that Professr called "Green Solar". Not a bad name anyway.

'_I'm not going to use it, he might recover faster even though he will receive too many_-,' her thoughts were interrupted when Butch generated a storm to swallow her whole. '_Damn, I wasn't even paying any attention!_'

"Gave up?" the green ruff looked at his own storm that contained Buttercup, grinning evilly. "I do hope so!" He charged a green ball at her with a perfect aimed shot, and through the storm to the find the location for the magnetic forces with Buttercup, which is.

After getting the aimed shot from Butch, she grunted to get out of the storm. '_My tornado generation only lasts a few seconds, but he isn't even controlling it!_' The green puff would do anything to win and crash down giving up, so she turned herself into a puddle of water. Being the water, she accomplished of reaching the ground and escaping the storm, returning back to her original self. Just think of how easy she escaped the storm generation compared to normal human beings?

"I'm sorry to say, but it's NOT over yet!" Buttercup grinned, pinning him down to the ground.

* * *

The blue puff ran out of words, even greeting the principal wasn't going to work. She stood there without any movement, staring at the blue ruff's eyes and canceling all gazes and contacts with other people. Well, there were just the three of them, but she only ran her eyes to meet with Boomer's.

The principal thought that it might have been hours they stood there, ignoring his presence. He fake coughed and cleared his throat, squeaking out "ahem". He motioned them to come closer to his desk and start eye contact with his eyes instead. The two students did as they were being asked, except that there was no talk at all.

They haven't moved a muscle and the principal didn't like how his meeting of importance had turned out to be, without even looking further into the situation like a case. Bubbles stood there, thinking of how her sisters could have reacted when seeing the Rowdyruff Boys. Bubbles vowed that maybe all of them ended up in the same situation, but differently. Were they fighting? Were they arguing? Were they going to compromise? Make amends? Talk like friends? Or talk like bullies?

Bubbles found the opportunity to take a quick side look of her neighbor, simply staring at him with those eyes. He noticed but didn't say anything. Just be glad that the principal was writing something at that time. But it was who she was though; she always found that people ignoring her or not saying anything – even if she wasn't supposed to butt in, yet not to the principal too! – isn't respecting society. She doesn't want to ruin her chance of meeting the principal like this, not like she never had met him though. But there should still be some more chances of having the principal sign his signature for her, right? She cleared her throat this time;

"Uh… oh, good morning, Mister Park, sorry for our impoliteness, I was just wondering why you called us?" Bubbles smiled nervously. Her expression that her principal saw was different, it was as if Bubbles just ate something sour and could not even speak. Or plus she was too focused on how artistic two people inside the room could be.

The principal straightened up his posture and set his pen down, sitting on his wheelchair with two of his hands balled together. "Why you say? I was in the middle of meeting with our new student Boomer. He actually asked if I could bring you in as well, to my dismay. And when you did come, the whole atmosphere turned freezing cold and it seems that the ozone layer just got the hang of you, hasn't it?" He had spoken with a softer emotion when he first started, but now Bubbles could see how disappointed the principal looked.

Bubbles cleared her throat in anxiety, '_Well, a whole different story than what I heard from the teacher… she said she didn't get anything more from the principal, but in the middle of a conversation? Okay… not to make anything rude, okay… Bubbles, you can do it!_' The blue puff exhaled before continuing, "Mister Park, I am very sorry to have interrupted your conversation, but Ms. Moore told me to go immediately to your office, and I was wondering if I got into trouble or a ransom this time." She used a wrong word…

Bubbles caught Boomer rolling his eyes and she gritted her teeth. "No, actually, I was going to congratulate your effort on winning second place either way. Here is your prize-" Bubbles' eyes went wide as soon as she heard the word "prize". Still she sighed, knowing that the principal does not want to meet her again at the end of the day. "-and I will have to hear what our new student has to say about you, Bubbles Utonium. A competition between two artists, how likely." After that, he faked coughed again.

The blue puff picked up her prize and thanked the principal. Now she wanted to get out of the office as much as the principal wanted to get her out of his office. Boomer was taking a while, too much time; did he even know how to talk at all? Bubbles haven't heard a single thing peeped out of his mouth yet.

The boy finally made a decision, turning his head to face Bubbles, "I finally found you here." Whether or not did he want to reveal the fact that he came here to defeat her, Bubbles found the statement annoying.

"Finally? Found me? To compete with me?" Bubbles couldn't control talking nice to her enemy, she wanted to grab a knife and bring it near his throat. But if that doesn't work out, then she will have to force him to say things kept right at his throat.

The principal glanced at the two students, confused. And being that he didn't want to get left out, he slammed the desk. "Bubbles Utonium, it isn't rare to hear that at all. It shouldn't be because artists come here to compete with the whole school. Is something bothering you?"

Bubbles sighed, that wasn't what she was saying at all. The principal of course did not understand her; he didn't even know who Boomer really was. It's not the competition that Bubbles is bothered about, it was the tone of his voice; so menacing and threatening, and each second that he wasted is each second Bubbles fall into despair deeply into his trap for luring her out to the principal's office. She _had_ to protect the principal right now!

"Mister Park, behold the danger!" she grabbed Boomer by the hand and clutched at his collars. "He _is_ a villain!" If the principal isn't going to react to that, she would torture the boy in her hands. But if the principal is going against her, then she would have to make everything messy.

The principal shouted, "Bubbles Utonium! Put down your hands, he hasn't done anything dangerous yet! Competitors are not your villains-" Mister Park was already halfway from standing up when Boomer shoved Bubbles not too hard out of his way and held out his hands in defense.

He was still strong alright.

The blue puff gawped at what he did. '_So he used that against me, huh?_' She kept her balance and glared at Boomer, her hands clutching with wrath. "Principal!" She turned her head to Mister Park before pointing at Boomer. "You don't know who he is! You shouldn't get involved! I don't know if he came here to destroy the Art Academy, but I will protect you guys!"

Boomer cut off the principal from arguing, "Bubbles, I did not do anything yet, and here you are, all naïve and trying to protect them without any proof."

Bubbles' eyes went wide and she was left with her mouth opened, "What? You call that naïve? Oh hoho, so I guess you still don't even know how to use words!"

"Same to you, my dear." Why was he so calm when he was actually being yelled at?

"Your dear? Oh please, give me a break, Boomer! I know what you want to do, you monster! Try to make the principal follow your intuitions and make him your pet, right? Well, as long as I'm here, nothing goes wrong!"

Boomer made a small laugh, "And don't forget that I asked you here too. Why would I ask you here if I was supposed to destroy the school and take over the principal?"

Bubbles' shoulders sunk all the way down like the _Titanic_, more like she was defeated. '_Bubbles, think before you say anything!_' Her voice was suddenly reminded of Buttercup's message. '_Oh yeah, Buttercup? Blossom plans before saying anything!_' she heard her voice; that was what she retorted after Buttercup. '_Don't mind Buttercup, Bubbles. She fights before thinking or saying anything._' Blossom's message got her the most of it anyhow.

"You think so? You could have just hid your innocence up to your sleeve, but as soon as I saw you, I know your true ideas! You bastard just wants me to fall for your tricks, but tell you what? I won't because I know better!"

"Then spoil it out, girl."

The blonde immediately seized her mouth, but she didn't want to give up. "What else could you have done to lure me out? You found out that I attend in this school, so that's why you are trying to join the contest and submit your beautiful entries! I don't think you even drew it-"

"Well, I did draw it."

"Why are you answering that instead of all the others I said?" Bubbles was already enraged with this encounter. "Your competition is something I don't understand, Jojo boy. Nobody ever competed with me, and I immediately understood why when I saw you, thug! So instead of saying competition-"

"Well? What is it? What do you think I mean by competition?" Damn that bastard for interrupting her.

Bubbles locked her contact with the blue boy, "That was what I was getting to. Afraid of me really spoiling it in front of the teacher? Well, I will tell you what! Competition was a word you used to cover up the true word – the word for defeating and causing havoc and destruction – FIGHT!"

He made a "tch" sound while the principal stayed being confused. How long does it take to get the principal to understand? And why does the principal not trust Bubbles, the Powerpuff Girl? "So what?"

"So what? Is that all you could say? Art competitions just meant to say fighting the Powerpuff Girls and end them, right!? Answer me-"

"Well then," Boomer sighed, turning his head to the principal. Not quite proper… not a good idea anymore… He should have looked away from Bubbles and the principal. Mister Park might have been confused a few moments ago, but now he might be in the same side as Bubbles… or is he? But it wouldn't hurt Boomer if he was.

"Bubbles and Boomer! You both don't dare to start a fight in my office! If you move, you will be doomed!" the principal yelled. Boomer only rolled his eyes while the blue puff seemed surprised.

Bubbles didn't move, but she knew she couldn't stand there any longer. She took a quick glance at Boomer; he was inadequately standing. "You think it was some childish game?" she heard her counterpart say from the opposite end. He was already floating in the air, crossing his arms.

'_Oh no, this could only mean bad news._' Bubbles thought. '_And how dare he talk to the principal like that?_' The blue puff instinctually flew and grabbed Boomer by the collar. The principal, stunned of what's happening, made a call to the guards. Yes, another sentry battle, isn't it?

"Section 2, please send out the guards to my office, NOW!" he yelled over the speaker. The two of them promptly landed on the ground. "Catch those two brats! They are not going to escape my office until I make a speech about fighting in the academy!" Halfway through his announcement in the speaker, a couple of guards arrived at the entrance. The two students simply stared at them and found it easy to take and escape, individually. As soon as the principal had finished with his sufficient speech, the room was surrounded with over 30 guards.

Boomer was left to look at his counterpart before spotting the principal getting out of his seat and making his way towards the two. Boomer stepped a few steps to the principal quickly and reached to take out Mister Park's pen. He played tricks with it, testing balance, and rolled himself over the desk to the other end. He was messing the head of Mister Park.

Bubbles only stared at the guards when she realized what Boomer was trying to attain. '_Oh my goodness, what is he doing at this hour? Isn't that a bit useless for now?_' One of the guards behind Bubbles tried to tie her hands without her noticing, but she punched him in the nose with the back of her hand.

The blue ruff messed with the principal's desk drawers and grabbed out a gun unexpectedly. Well, it wouldn't be rare for the principal to hide a gun in his drawers… for self-protection. The guards focused their own guns on the boy while the two students widened their eyes at the gun and glanced at the principal. Boomer easily captured the principal who stood still ever since Boomer sneaked out the gun. The ruff didn't fly away though; he placed the gun on the top of the principal's head while he placed his other hand on the neck. "Drop your guns down or I will shoot-"

"Boomer! Do not harm the principal!" Bubbles ordered even though she knew her enemy would not listen. At least, not to an enemy. Bubbles defeated the guards near her freely before running into more guards. She flew up, making the sentry think that she was going to escape. However, she was planning on an attack. After flying up, she landed again only to have two of her legs kicking in two guard heads. She swirled while she was still mid in air, using her legs to easily kick the guards into a pile. More guards kept coming, not focusing on the attention of Boomer and the principal.

Boomer sped out with the principal still resting in his hands, kicking some of the guards to help Bubbles. But Bubbles didn't think of it like that, she vaporized the nearest guards in an instant and hurried after Boomer. '_I'm not going to let him escape with the principal!_' She dashed through the hallway and tried to find the escapers.

She lost track of where they went; there were just so many left and right turns! She flew to look at each opening of another hallway until she found the principal lying on the floor. With speed, she leaned into the principal and asked him where Boomer had fled.

"He… went that… way…" the principal was almost in his state of collapsing to unconsciousness. He had his index finger pointed to the opposite hallway and Bubbles departed instantaneously.

* * *

"What creates or runs two wheels?" Blossom asked herself while flying. She had just lost Brick when he made his last punch. Before he had left, he started to play some riddles on her by asking the same exact question Blossom is currently trying to answer. But Blossom, engrossed to the riddle subject, forgot all about his "other reason" of his incoming appearances.

The redhead was still thinking, mostly about how he worded the sentence. "Bicycles do… but there are so many of them! A wheelchair could he have possibly meant? But where would that give me?" She came up with tons of possible answers until she found the answer of _circles_. "According to my theory, circles are the potential shape of the wheels and it is used to run many things with a possibility of two. Okay, but where does circles give me? Where… circ… a circus? Yes! That's correct!" She flew to the only circus found in Townsville and searched for the red ruff, wherever he was.

"Come out, I know you are here," Blossom rolled her eyes when she spotted the red cap of the boy. The red ruff only crossed his arms and gave her the next riddle;

"Find the location that didn't get wet. I will rain the whole town." He broke through the entrance of the circus and started to make water pour from the sky, leaving the puff up to solving another riddle.

"What now? Is he following what HIM did?" her eyes are rolling again. "The location that didn't get wet? Okay… kind of like…" She tried many times to find the right location of the only place that shouldn't be wet. "The desert of Townsville? No… the Greenhouse? No… yes! I got it… the waterproof building." She streaked the sky, only to realize that the rain vanished and the sun came out so suddenly. "Oh no… most of the places are going to dry up pretty quick…"

The red ruff abruptly appeared in front of the leader girl, "You didn't really guess it right."

"How?" the girl was surprised, did he just appear right in front of her? '_Find the location that didn't get wet… It must have been… woah, I got it! After the rain, oh my goodness, I didn't catch the phrase. But… then what is the correct answer? After the rain, several buildings would still be in the stage of drying up…'_

"It is right here," Brick touched the air, with his expressions all blank.

"For a second I thought you gave up because the rain stopped!" Blossom yelled at him, not realizing the hint he gave her. "Wait… what did you just say?"

"The air, stupid! After the rain stopped, the air is the place that didn't get wet, sissy!" he smacked his fist on the puff's head. Blossom thought that his talking tone had just changed from being calm to arrogant.

The pink puff gasped and instantly caught the boy from flying away, "Oh, no you don't! You are not going anywhere! You can spit one of your riddles out right here and then. I will solve it without finding you!"

"Alright then, Bossy. A person built a house and it fell. The person did not get hurt and he knew it was going to fall anyway. What is your answer? You have 10 seconds to answer."

'_He built a house and he knew it was going to fall anyway… what kind of things would fall when knowing it? What kind of materials of building a house would fall easily? And what if it wasn't a "house"?_' the pink puff questioned to herself; thinking even harder. She was not going to lose to this boy for his stupid riddles; she needed to find a way to fight him way better than solving riddles. "Aha!" She snapped and she only got 6 seconds to answer.

The redheaded boy was surprised at her sudden reaction, but he was not going to let her answer that easily… right?

"The person was building a house of cards, correct? I've heard of that one before, delinquent! The person knew the cards would fall because it is easy to achieve that!" Brick was only amazed at her for answering it correct.

"So?" was all he managed to say.

"Yeah and I won't let you test me anymore riddles, Brick. I want to hear out your explanation right now," she ordered him, not like he will obey them though. "Alright, we will fight first before declaring any answers-"

Brick went straight on with that idea and punched her in the stomach. He flew across several buildings before making his attempt to wait for an attack from the puff leader. However, the girl was too focused on the imaginary line Brick had formed while he was flying.

'_He was flying at a constant speed of c, forming a polygonal path that revolves in a cycle like a circuit. Nothing changed his speed, no wind, nothing, and the direction was constant as well. This will increase the time required… I will give that equation as k c, now to just solve this equation right from Ms. Keane's complicated, complex, and challenging math problems!_' Being the leader girl that she was, she flew a dozen times at the polygonal path Brick originally created and tried to solve the problem, ignoring the fight that they had promised to do.

'_All set, the variables for the wind, the velocity, and the sides of the polygonal path and the ground will give me the equation. Wait; let me change that to a quadratic equation with the formula. I will ignore all the negative points and figure it out!_' Her hands were writing on imaginary paper from the air, effortlessly trying to solve the equation. Her counterpart only rolled his eyes at what the girl was doing.

"There I got it! K is greater than 0!" Blossom shrieked, flying to Brick and giving him a thrust to the ground. Brick eventually recovered and pinned the girl down who was still proud of her work, waking her up for real.

"What did you think you were doing? Trying to make me stand there in the air and waiting for you to spit out some mathematical and numerical solutions?" He punched her several times to the ground, not letting go or giving her a chance to fight him. Wasn't that a little selfish.

Blossom smirked and used her free legs to kick his stomach, "Hey, thanks for everything today! I mean, it's not over yet but I will have to keep using you to help me solve some math problems." She had her fists balled, ready to enter another battle. Brick, on the other hand, is not in the mood of playing mind games with this girl.

After so many battles, Blossom solved all of Ms. Keane's leftover math problems with Brick's help without him even knowing it. "Seems like Ms. Keane's problems have to do with flight and-"

"Then you better get back to school, I don't have all day."

Blossom studied him, '_He doesn't know what he's talking about. Didn't we say that he was to answer my questions about his comeback? And he's not supposed to let me go and not defeat me._'

"Well then, thank you," Blossom smiled, replacing the smirk she was going to display.

Thankfully, the red ruff was not looking, his back was on her. What she didn't realize in those five seconds was that he had formed an evil grin. '_Things are going to be much fun. All are according to plan_.' And with that, he took off. Blossom stared at the red streak he made in the sky with a big sigh. It has been years since she had seen a red streak in the sky, flying freely.

* * *

The battle with Buttercup and Butch really wasn't even just an hour or more over. They succeeded in fighting each other and bruising their opponents. Buttercup used a lot of energy compared to her counterpart since she was the person who gives an aftershock back at Butch. The green ruff only took it easy on her, without time or quickness, and even copied some of her powers.

The soccer field was almost ripped from their fighting. Just be glad that nobody was watching them, even the coach had gone home. If nobody is going to come and declare anything, then these two will fight from day to night. These two are not even selecting giving up, each proving their strengths. Someone should just say oh wow.

"You better not take a fight on the soccer field the next time!" Buttercup shouted, blasting a power ball at her opponent. Neither of them knew that when she started this question, it will be most of the ending for their battle.

"Too bad, that's where I found you, and it's a place that I would like to kick some butt," answered the tough green brother. He had dodged the attack from Buttercup and was about to form the same thing when someone interrupted;

"OMG, the soccer field!" its sound came from a ten year old boy. He had brown hair and held a scared expression due to what he saw.

Buttercup took her time to look at who it was that shouted in the middle of their fight, yet she ignored it when finished studying the boy's face. "Mitch, just go home already, I have a meeting with this guy!" Speaking of home, what time is it exactly? Is school over?

Over the fence, the two tough fighters could sense that Mitch ran away from the field in shock. Buttercup only sighed, dropping her stance to come in contact with her counterpart.

"You know what? I don't think I would like to fight you right after I had soccer," Buttercup affirmed, her teeth gritting once said.

"Yeah, I think it's so boring without my brothers!" Butch said it in mere sarcasm; he didn't need his brothers' help just like Buttercup. He walked closer with both hands placed on the back of his neck, "So… why were you playing soccer in the first place?"

"Oh wow, I thought you knew," Buttercup rolled her eyes. "That isn't why you came to fight with me? Oh yikes, then I just really took it on for the soccer field." She made a shrug and snugged the soccer ball back to the case.

"Yes, you absolutely did because you were just so excited to see me!" out came a burst of laughter from the green ruff; of course he didn't mean to say such stupid things.

"Butch, if you won't shut up for a second, I will kill," Buttercup glared. "And why don't you just learn it the simple way? Wait for me to finish soccer and fight in the air?" She appointed out a good reason still and all.

The green ruff made no reply.

"Alright, why are you here? I reckon Blossom could have asked that to your brother already, if he hadn't even made his move to fight her yet." Buttercup finally asked this question that was supposed to be placed on top priority.

"I came here to fight, of course," Butch blankly stared at Buttercup for asking a dumb question.

The raven head rolled her eyes, "As if that would answer anything? I am actually happy that you took one on one because I absolutely do not want to fight alongside my sisters with your brothers." She continued to ignore his silence and focused on the messed up soccer field from all their doing.

Butch did not answer; he honestly discounted her question and asked something else, "I was querying you earlier, why you were playing soccer in the morning?" Querying… what fancy word.

"Because I do," she spit. "You were planning to fight me at school, huh? Only to find that Brick has to drop himself alone there, ha! Well, tell you what, I go to soccer and play a game before I go to school. I know… late right? But it's not like I play soccer every morning!" And don't forget in the evening as well…

Butch found her behavior strange, "Hey, I helped you today for wasting more time to go to school, why do you even bother-"

"Let's see, it is 12 o'clock. Geez, I was still playing soccer from 8 to 10, so… yeah, you came somewhere at 10 and now it's 12." Buttercup stared at her clock, neglecting his sentences. However, she looked back at him with a glare, "I don't understand what this conversation is."

"Neither do I, but I say that you girlie would be off next time," he grinned, flying off. Okay, invisible mission for him is complete while Buttercup was left to deal with all the mess on the field.

* * *

Blue streaks. They were flying everywhere; first here, second there, and next and finally to a stop. Bubbles went after him for only a few 30 minutes and he still doesn't intend on stopping his flying and speed. It only made the blue puff want to kill him more.

Well, finally Boomer had landed on precious ground. The blue puff saw him stop and followed him as well, except that she was of course meters away. Are they going to stare at each other and play the no talking game again?

All because of such silence, Bubbles intended to break it, "Alright, Jojo boy, you can't escape anymore!" She seems to have dropped her stance, trying to follow reasoning out with her enemy. Maybe because she thought that this was what Blossom would have done. "With me here, you can't even throw a-"

The blue ruff had pinned her down to the cold ground like a sneaking shadow. He didn't move though… what's going to happen after he had pinned her down? The blonde stared at the ruff's eyes; it was a deep blue representing the ocean, so much that she could have just forgotten all about fighting him. She looked at his expression; it was gentle and harmless alright. Wait, _harmless?_ Is that what it was?

They have been on the ground for several seconds or minutes right now, and none of them moved a muscle. Bubbles broke it again, "What do you think you were doing?" She grabbed his forearms and tried to push him away from her.

He reacted instantly and shot her a glare before standing up, dusting off anything that might have been dirt or something. "Weren't you so focused on that, too?"

The blue puff's cheeks got red. Well, you would call that a blush. "Don't tend to think things that way, Boomer. After what's happened, I'm only going to fight you." She made it to his path and gripped his wrist with her right hand while her left land created a power ball.

With only one hand out and about, Boomer still had his other hand, so he would just come up with the same solution of hitting balls at her. "Don't you think that I actually had two hands?" He strangled her neck with his free hand to the wall, causing her powered ball to slowly relapse from her palms.

"Yeah, I knew you had two hands, but I thought you might be too dumb to notice that!" Bubbles tried to make out her words perfectly, even laughing bitterly when he had her neck strangled. His grip on her neck got stronger and she felt pain, but she wasn't going to cry that easily.

She continued, "I won't forgive you for what you did to the principal and to my school!" She closed her eyes, fearing the worse coming.

"Sorry, but that wasn't really a meeting with the principal, I should say," Boomer smirked as he disengaged on suffocating her. "But you are a girl with your own words, so I won't end it without a fight." He took his time smashing her face while she tried to breathe to survive.

'_In any case, if I don't be too nice or something… the mission won't be accomplished. But I can't bring myself to be nice to this girl._' Those words appeared through Boomer's mind, leading him to widen his eyes. He stared at the girl; she was coughing from choking, always touching her neck when she felt something was bothering. She had her face gazed to the ground, also moaning from the punches and kicks Boomer sent her. She was rather weak to let him fight all he wanted.

The boy sighed. He would just do anything to get his mission done, right? He bent down next to her, this time touching her face and turning her head to face him. Of course as expected, the girl would be confused. "It's okay, you've choked before." Good start, but bad thing to say. Boomer smiled, bringing her to rest on his chest, but he still had no idea if this was even trying to be nice.

Bubbles was surprised, she knew she's going to be killed immediately if she didn't retreat and fly away from this guy. She ignored it though because she couldn't stop her choking. "W-what are you doing?" She didn't push him this time, for she was too weak to attack. A few punches and strangling… and she was already feeling sick. Weak and pathetic.

"Oh, nothing," Bubbles would have apprehended that he was going to push her away, but he still kept the distance. When he had just replied why, shouldn't he be the one embarrassed and trying to back away from her? She didn't reply and neither did he mention anything. Bubbles was sick of being close to him, gulping right after her coughs ended.

The constant rolling of his eyes got the best of him. He gently pushed Bubbles to the wall and stood up… she thought that she was going to die now; if he was standing up so straight, doesn't that mean he was going to attack her with all his might? He had smiled with his eyes closed.

'_Oh no, I shouldn't be feeling comfortable with having him here. Why is he smiling? Is that actually a smirk?_' blonde heads think a lot, but she needs to know what happened to him after he punched her. He just automatically switched to another person!

"Well, I guess for now, it's the end. Just prepare to take what's going to eventuate next." He warned, hiding his initial purpose to that smile.

* * *

**It seems to me that I can't come up with anything else better than just having easy fights. So what's going to happen next? And what was all those "missions" about? Well, Mojo was actually trying to make the boys do them, so it would be considered a mission if they successfully completed it during their encounters with the girls.**

**Anyway, it might change a lot for the next chapter though. It's actually about a few days later that the boys met up with them. The boys have to start their mission number two, and that is to gain their trust. Well, all well go well. To Buttercup, not so much. Blossom and Bubbles will definitely find it weird for them to just turn up to be trusting to the boys, but which of them gets the worst?**

**So… if you want, slip a review for the story and tell me if you enjoyed it or something. I would appreciate anything from critique, feedback, commentary, or just a positive review. Questions and or concerns regarding the story are also welcomed too.**

**See you guys next week, hopefully…**


	3. Chapter 3 - Deal With It

**The World is a Stranger**

**This time I wrote it late and not early. Sorry for not posting it at a weekly participation, but it's kind of getting hard to deal with a lot of things in reality. I will just answer some reviews before continuing the story, I guess.**

**Guest and ROCuevas – I tried to make the second chapter as interesting and not boring enough, but glad that you guys read it.**

**Elisa – Hi! Thanks for the suggestion; I was trying to keep a few things about the story and giving some hints for the next chapter. Yes, I can see that it is really hard to tell what they are thinking, but hopefully they will stay in character in this chapter. I started this story is because I want them to stay in character; however you guys may see things.**

**Story reader – Oh… I love to answer questions, but it's not going to be easy just explaining them. I find that maybe I should answer questions that are from the previous chapter instead of their intentions of what's going to happen next. So the guesses about Bubbles being the one who trusts the boys will not be answered from this chapter…**

**Long Summary: The Powerpuff Girls, now 10 years old, still fight crime for the sake of Townsville. And no, they do not get sick of it however, because that is their "job". The evil villains all had joined forces for the last three years and right now, the Powerpuff Girls will have to deal with the old counterparts once more, who knew better. All the girls need to do is trust their own feelings and actions, but could they really trust "trust"? But… they always win the villains… right?**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls and everyone knows that. The plot is owned by me, however.**

* * *

After a confusion of battles and fights Blossom had with the leader of the Rowdyruff Boys, she is left to deal with the mess she caused for the school. But she was just standing still, airborne, in the middle of Townsville right now. Their fights had gotten out of handle and they soon went flying elsewhere to fight, away from the school which was the first place. She stared at the citizens who had been watching them all along and glanced at others that minded no business. She looked to the right and spots the Townsville Hall.

'_Oh my, did we went this far? We were just fighting in front of some building a while ago, but we almost stopped completely in front of the Mayor's Office!_' Blossom thought mentally. She took one last look at the scene; it was still at peace alright. Not much damage and it was easy to repair… She flew across the sky in a split second when she saw the big clock on a building; the red hand ticking as she saw the other hands reaching 12:48 P.M.

But oh boy, did she not know that the whole school was in the state of hurry. A big whoops. When she landed on precious ground, the students in front of her were running crazily around. She didn't cause that much damage… or did she? Or was it even her fault in the first place?

Blossom tapped on one of the students' shoulders near her; fortunately that student wasn't running wildly in panic. "Ex-Excuse me? What's going on?"

The student's face turned to the direction of the redhead, with hurried looks, "Yes! It was you! Blossom Utonium, you are the center of attention for this disturbance!"

The redhead rolled her eyes, now what was this the student was talking about? "Right… right, if I say I wasn't the one who caused it?"

"The principal ordered us all, the whole school, to meet up in the assembly room outside the field! Please come, everybody's looking for you and everybody's hurrying to the assembly room-"

"I've done a lot of damage to the school before because of crime, but what you are trying to say doesn't make any sense," the redhead replied unknowingly. She had wished that she heard some announcement of this event while she was away.

"Save it, let's go!" the student grabs Blossom's wrist and runs wildly, pushing past people in their way. Blossom rolled her eyes sickly; she could have just gone to the assembly room in a matter of seconds with her superpowers. She sighed and raised her feet, touching air. It was her turn to _glide_ this student.

Once they had reached to the assembly room, they could spot a few classes aligned up like they were ready for a march. Blossom landed with the student, trying to examine what's the assembly for today. The redhead is really good at knowing what kind of speech the principal has to make in a specific assembly, there were just too many to figure out. Yet this time, she didn't understand what the principal might want to do. She knew that the student said it was for her damaging to the school they had to go meet in this assembly. But the way they are aligned up isn't so… great? But the student didn't really say _damage_, did she?

"What is really going on?" Blossom asked, looking back to the student that she was talking to earlier. The student… wasn't there anymore; she must have hurried to find her class and align with them. Blossom sighed, '_Am I supposed to find my class and align too? If that's what everyone is doing, then I guess I should do the same._'

The redhead examined the students carefully to see if they were her classmates. She snapped once she remembered the face of her teacher, Ms. Keane. She flew straight at the incoming direction and stayed airborne while asking her teacher of the circumstance, "Ms. Keane! What's happened here?"

The teacher stared at her favorite student in surprise, "Oh my! You've come back, Blossom!" She quickly changed expressions as she tensed up, "Blossom, go to the principal right now! He's waiting for you there!" Ms. Keane had pointed at the podium that was visible in front of everyone's eyes.

The redhead followed what her teacher said as she flew to the direction of their principal. "Um, Mr. Winston, what happened? Am I the one to blame? I'm so sorry for the damage _I _caused you!"

The principal was shocked to see the redhead standing right next to him out of the blue. He later coughed, "Miss Blossom Utonium, what are you talking about? What kind of damage?"

"The one where I happened to crash into two classrooms… just today," Blossom replied unevenly. '_So this conversation is different than I expected, I'm just going to land here and discuss more with the principal._'

"Oh… that one," he touched his chin, letting Blossom know that he was thinking of how to explain it for her level of listening. "You sure did cause a lot of mess for the other two classrooms. None of them got injured but the teachers were real mad. Ms. Keane solved the issue and we let in some construction crew to work on the fix while you were away fighting crime again."

"Uh… but why is there an assembly today?" Blossom asked, scratching her head. This wasn't making any sense at all. She thought back to the construction crew fixing the walls and stuff; she would have easily fixed it with her powers. Was there such a thing though?

"In case you have forgotten?" the principal's face was full of shock, but he held a little grin in there. "But no worries, we might make a surprise for you anyway." He straightened up his posture as he looked at the students and teachers in front of him. "They are not all here yet."

Blossom turned to the people in front of her, confused. Suddenly, while looking at everyone's faces, her face got red. She was embarrassed… she was never embarrassed to stand in front of the school and make speeches, but this wasn't right. It seems to her that it was still of the destruction she made earlier, but combined with all the people just to see her standing in the podium… getting her head ripped off when her principal expels her or something? She shook her head… that can't be right. She had the sudden urge of escaping from these many people, but she would have been eager to make a speech today if they were all here…

She couldn't escape in front of these many eyes at her, so she tried to picture perfect. The principal and Blossom realized that everyone was now aligned, no wait anymore. That means… no escape anymore.

The principal grabbed the mike in front of him as he tried to speak, "Listen, ladies and gentlemen-" The principal continued to speak while Blossom's eyes rolled. She was not getting good feels for this, just what is happening? Was it a dream?

'_I'm probably going to get expelled, that's the only way I could think of._'

"I present Blossom Utonium here at the present location!" Cheers roared from those eyes that stared at her.

'_Right, they are all excited to hear me get expelled._'

"Because of such efforts, she fights crime, fights for evil, fights for the school!" The cheers brightened even more.

'_So because of that, I'm going to get expelled for fighting in the school._'

"She's done too much for the school and we all appreciate that, but now's the time to present this even more. Let's see, the results are here!" Everybody's eyes beamed…

'_I've done too much and it's over now, they say. And the results are of me getting expelled, right?_'

The principal had gone to recite a long speech about Blossom positively, but Blossom had her mind focused all on the negativity. So… she was the first student to get expelled in front of the school on the day of a speech. Alright, she will save everybody's sorry looks for getting expelled sooner or later because _she's the first person to get expelled right in front of everybody with an expelling speech. _Guess that the principal knew that this would suit her?

'_But why am I like this? If I was to get expelled, I should know that already and be happy. Goodbye my school life._'

"This award is presented to the leader of the Powerpuff Girls, Blossom Utonium! Let's congratulate her!" Cheers roared again.

'_So… I get an award for being expelled.'_ Blossom thought… but she seemed surprised as well. She quickly sighted Ms. Keane's location; she had her hands balled up like she was wishing for something, eyes glistening with waters, and a face that Blossom would ever want from a mom.

"As the school's number one student!" the principal finally concluded, smiling happily. Blossom's whole world just shook. She looked to the sides at her principal while he did the same. "Ahem, Miss Blossom Utonium, do you have anything to say with you being the number one student of the whole school?"

Blossom's eyes easily shot wide, '_What did he just say? Isn't he going to expel me? Or did I put too much… emphasis on all of these? Like yeah, why would I get expelled anyway?_'

She turned to the crowd with her eyebrows furrowed up. '_I am so sorry, everybody. I thought wrong._' She cleared her throat before continuing, "Um… thank you everybody. I enjoy protecting your lives, each and every one of you present in this location. It is only rare for me to get this kind of award in this very day without knowing it-" her mind revolved. She thought back to a few days before when she had a talk with Mr. Winston. He had said _in case you have forgotten_… Why so much coincidence? The day she was supposed to be the top student she collided into something she has been trying to solve several events and hours that passed, _Brick_. "-I'm sorry, I only forgot about this! And because of what I caused, I misunderstood everything today. If I was to be the number one student, I don't."

Everybody's eyes shot wide at her, cheers drowned as the beams became dull. "W-What?" Everybody's faces turned sideways to question with their neighbors.

"I should take full responsibility of my actions, citizens! If I caused you damage, grief, and chaos, I should take responsibility to fix them all. I can't hold my place as number one in the school. No, no, that's not what I wanted! I am only one of your protectors in the school, I can't take the place as if I was greedy or anything. And because I misunderstood you guys, I don't deserve that first place. I hope you understand my decisions." Fortunately, her voice was loud enough for them all to hear without using the mike. She stepped off the podium when she headed back the award to the principal.

Mr. Winston was only confused, the number one student rejecting this award and her place? He sighed, "Miss Blossom Utonium, we are happy that you were being honest, and that's what we all appreciate about you."

* * *

The soccer field was so messed up that Buttercup didn't know how to deal with it. She's not quick to handle things like Blossom or eager like Bubbles. She wants something else herself, and she has been trying to cry out to that kind of feeling for many a few years now. But she was just glad that she could take full responsibility of her actions for this soccer field that she, not any of her sisters, played on… or the place that makes her feel charged up.

The green puff sighed as she took a quick moment to examine the damage the soccer field displayed. She retrieved some balls that were lying on the ground back to where they belonged, fixed the fences back to straight position, cleaned the grass to get rid of any dirty substances, and repaired the goalkeeper fence to the way she liked it. It wasn't that hard but it wasn't easy either. She vowed that it may have been one to two hours for fixing everything in the soccer field all by herself. It's not always like they had powers they could easily do everything.

Buttercup stopped by to drink at a drinking fountain; she suddenly remembered that she had to go to school right now… Something might have happened or whatevers. The green puff didn't like school anyways, she just wanted to skip some time from school and be free. But she actually wanted to skip school every day and play soccer up till night, but she never has the chance. She would just be bored in a couple of games even though she wanted to continue. The next thing Buttercup knew, she would be heading off to school and do assignments and projects and work and stuff.

The girl sighted the time at her watch, one o'clock it read. But not exactly one though. She hurried to the changing room without knowing what to do next. Going to school or stay here? School was almost going to be over soon or something… in one or two hours. She sure missed a lot of things, but being absent the whole day could be enough to make up everything the next day. If she were to go back to school now, she would be making up everything in those one to two hours.

Once she was finished slamming her locker, she thought about earlier. "Mitch was still here? Did he head home or go to school?" She scratched her head before exiting the room and heading off to the sidewalks. "Ugh, who cares anyway?"

The traffic was extremely annoying at this hour. Cars were buzzing everywhere, the lights were constantly turning red, people around the sidewalks waiting with bothered looks, a crime could start right then and there. An accident may have started in the next traffic or something.

She turned to an empty sidewalk with nobody trying to wait for the lights to turn green or say WALK. She grabbed out an iPod from her leather jacket and turned on some peaceful music or just some crazy, loud music that only could be heard in her ears. She held an evil smirk…

She had placed her hands on her pockets while heading straight. As she made her way towards to the waiting lane of the sidewalk, her smirk had grown wide. The lights were still red, the other side of the sidewalk was filled with people that hold really annoyed looks, and afraid they were going to get late. Buttercup wasn't making a fuss out of the lights being red or not, she just took a step on the streets while putting a hoodie on. She just walked the streets when it read STOP with big red, flashy lights. She was not afraid of it, she was only free. Nothing hurt, no cars zoomed at her, nobody noticed… but someo_ne_ did. Only she didn't care though.

* * *

Not only was she confused in what had happened, she was still weak and pathetic. Even flying back to the Art Academy might give her a lot of pain, a lot of confusion, and lots of lots of trouble. What could even happen right after the three sisters get home?

Her first instinct was to find the principal; to see if the sentry had saw him lying on the ground while collapsing to an unconscious state. But she wanted to get back to class and not worry about the whole thing… but if the principal comes in their room, he would make a speech and stuff would happen. It would be best if she solved things _right now_.

She slowly opened the doors of the Principal's Office… she took a quick glance at the room… no one. Except the guards that were injured, that is. She did the work… but if they were lying here, that could only mean they weren't even noticed by office members who would have sent them to the infirmary or the hospital if possible. She would feel bad because it was her… only her who fought the guards when Boomer should be the one.

Bubbles headed to the infirmary, the Principal should be in there since he collapsed too. While opening the doors, she was prepared to face the bright light to hope or the glares that the nurse, the principal, and some people gave. She absentmindedly stood there, meeting her eyes with the Principal lying on a bed. The nurse sighed as she made her way towards Bubbles;

"Sweetie, Mr. Park has something to tell you."

The nurse was always nice and kind… just like what nurses all should be.

The blonde one nodded, flying to the Principal with a worried look, "Mr. Park! I am very sorry for the troubles! And I am very sorry I didn't catch Boomer back here!" She bowed endlessly like a rocking chair.

"It's alright, just don't forget that you need to follow the rules of not fighting in here."

"But I wasn't fighting-"

"To my guards as well," he interrupted, motioning Bubbles to look at the guards lying on the other beds.

The girl sighed, "I am very sorry for them too, but I wasn't the one who started! I was just trying to tell you that Boomer isn't to be trusted!"

"It's okay; he's our new student in any case. If that's his way of welcoming us, then that should be it."

The blonde one's eyes shot wide, "You still don't understand? He was trying to take a fight on me! He wasn't trying to attend the school like you thought he was!" She would need a better explanation to get the principal to understand and to get him on her side.

"Bubbles, I believe that every new student can get as creative as whatever to attend the school. We welcome him anyway, for his talents and exceptional art skills, so if he is actually a baddy boy in the outside, let him be."

Bubbles' eyes felt heavy, she gasped without a sound. "W-What?" She dropped to the ground with tons of words surrounding her brain. "Y-You thought that was cr-creative?" she muttered to herself. Had Boomer manipulated the principal's mind?

* * *

"I'm glad that you three are back," echoed a voice in a room filled with experiments and chemicals. They weren't sure if the stranger who just called were typing on a device system or experimenting once again, but they were back alright. If they are back, it could mean the first mission is accomplished or got defeated again… but that wouldn't be possible. There wasn't any defeat this time; _they_ were the ones to leave.

The three nodded, whether the stranger could see or feel it or not, and headed to a room to discuss things together.

"The next mission might be a lot harder than I could retaliate," a boy with red eyes started. The room was quite dark at first, but with each of their eyes glowing, they could see fine with who was talking or what was happening. The blue one got the best out of it by turning on the lights in the next moment.

"Yeah…" the blue one agreed with a voice with no hopes.

"But we have to do it anyway," the green one chimed in. "Brick, you will have to plan straight ahead for all of us. Do you have the plan on working the next mission with pinkie?"

"Who knows? She's a girl of reason, so I don't see why not." The redhead turned to the youngest one, "As for you, Boomer… isn't Bubbles a little too easy?"

"No… not at all, bro," Boomer replied, recollecting the events that happened hours earlier. "You don't know what happened. She seems all against me and stuff which doesn't sound like her like I would have thought."

Brick raised an eyebrow; he thought that Boomer could be the easiest one to complete the next mission. "Just how wrong did it go, Boomer?"

"Her attitude stinks," the blue one replied evenly. "She messed everything up, so I had to turn the events with something so awkward."

"Awkward?" the other two simultaneously blurted out. There wouldn't be a lot of things considered to be awkward, but they found it hard to actually think about what he did. Was it worth being nice or was it keeping his character? Sure, Brick only let her win and left by himself, but he certainly didn't do anything _nice_. Brick only took the chance of showing who he was and trying to reason out with the girl, including the time to give her riddles to solve. But that wasn't _nice_. The green boy took the fight so easily that they only caused a lot of damage without much talk… until the end. He dropped his stance and asked her questions to just clear his mission up; it couldn't just be fighting because that wouldn't change Buttercup's thoughts about who he was trying to be. He was only so close to not finishing the mission, but he did the same, took off like he retreated in no other day. But they weren't _nice_ at all. So what could it be that Boomer did was awkward?

"Right, right, you guys got the easy ones!" Boomer stood up, waving his hands in the air and trying to grasp for the doorknob.

Brick stopped in front of him, "You thought that we got the easy ones? That pinkie wasn't even really fighting with me – she was spitting random mathematical equations for the whole thing and ended me up in a mathematical, unsolvable, impossible, flight solution."

Butch and Boomer rolled their eyes. "Buttercup and I just fought right at the start, you call that easy?"

"Butch, don't forget that you always do that. There's no way of calling it easy or not. You guys lied… well, at least maybe Brick did. I had to draw several entries and join the Academy!"

The older siblings rolled their eyes; it's nice to have different pairings this time. "Too bad, you know her. You can't just find her anywhere and start a fight you know."

"The reason why I joined the academy was for an excuse for knowing that I was being _nice_. Like _nice_, the _nice_ that you know I am talking about. I thought joining it and encounter with her was finished for the mission, but how dare she!?"

"How would she even figure that you were being nice, that doesn't make any sense," the green one snickered.

Brick sighed, "Yes, I suppose that we all had different ideas. I only found her in the classroom and lied that I was her new classmate. Well, that was just a phrase; it isn't real as Boomer because he actually got accepted."

"I just happened to find that she was in the soccer field. I threw a ball at her and right then and there, we were in battle mode. You guys can imagine that!"

The two boys rolled their eyes and "ughed" like they already knew what could have happened for Butch's idea of being nice. Yeah, he didn't take it all seriously.

"Anyway, we should continue to discuss about what to do next," Brick brought the group back together. He walked away from the door and sat on one of the table's seats. This room was eventually called the Interrogation Room for any purpose of their plans, missions, and just personal stuff. The room contained several experiments, several decorations, and several chairs in one table in the middle… which was next to a soft couch where you could watch TV. Not a bad room anyway.

The younger ones made no sound as they agreed to discuss the next issue, sitting on random chairs. Boomer started, "Well, I don't see any plan of actually getting Bubbles to trust me. I don't think I made a figure of me to change her thoughts of who I am to be."

"I think none of us did… except Brick, right?" Butch's eyes slowly gazed at Brick's eyes, displaying a smirk on his face. He so wanted his brother to reply to that saying even though he also got the feeling Brick probably didn't accomplish his plans.

Brick ignored him, "As I was saying, we will have to split apart again. If we all do it, it might cause some problems." He had discontinued from saying anything else, but he was actually trying to study everybody's reaction first.

"But if we all do it together, they could easily trust us, correct?" Boomer argued. He definitely didn't want to be stuck alone with that girl again.

"No, Boomer. Something must be done with each of our own ability, you know? We will have to quickly make up a plan for distraction." Brick's eyes were not visible at the current moment; his brothers found it a bit menacing. They just don't know if it would turn out right or not, disregarding the look.

"But Brick, tell you what!" Butch snapped; he seems to have remembered something. "You would _not_ believe this!"

Boomer raised his eyebrows, making a sigh. He was probably being left out again. He stood up and pushed his chair to its resting position while he headed to a wall with buttons. He pressed a button and a window slid up; the sun was bright that way. He ignored his brothers like this most of the time when they had disappeared, but in his mind he was trying to join the conversation and say "What? What is it? Do I know about it?"

Butch whispered something to Brick's ears before altering back to where he sat. The redhead's eyes bulged but then he rolled his eyes. "Okay? What does that do?"

The green ruff seemed surprised, yet he still was confident with knowing what he saw. "Isn't that a great chance of having her trust me? She's the one that doesn't want to get involved with her sisters at all!"

Brick crossed his arms, "So… are you saying that we should end Blossom and Bubbles first? And then maybe they could somehow get together and Buttercup is so bothered by the fact of it?"

"Who knows? Buttercup seems cold to her sisters, so she wouldn't listen to them, right? Then she would listen to an enemy, I guess." Too good to be true.

The redhead smacked Butch's head with a hard book, "No, that's the opposite. Haven't you ever thought about that… she might be too smart to fall for your trust without the sisters? That's even harder for you, Butch. You take individually really seriously, brother."

Butch moaned, but he could get his hopes still on balance. Boomer, on the other side, has no idea how to have Bubbles trust him after what he did –in what he thought was awkward- to her. He pressed the button again, staring at the open plate of the window gradually collapsing back to its hidden place. Brick steadied himself as he stood up, pushing his chair and walking to the door.

Now who has a plan?

"We will meet them in a few days again."

* * *

The time for school had ended for all students in Townsville. Buttercup arrived home way too early, well just about 15 minutes before school actually ended. She slumped herself on the couches and turned on the TV, removing her hoodie. She switched to her favorite sports channel again, begging the news for not interrupting.

The door had opened in a hurry… Buttercup could tell that this person, whoever it was, grabbed the keys out while staring into space and trying to open the keys as fast as they could no matter what. Too much effort in a hurry. The door was still annoying Buttercup, '_This person sure does know how to annoy someone. Just open it nice and normal, like always. Geez._'

The person at the entrance soon opened the door, throwing the keys at the shoe case and changing their shoes. "Buttercup!" Damn. It was Blossom, of course. "Why were you not at school today!?"

Obviously she was going to talk about school. That school girl's got guts about it. Buttercup turned the TV off and turned to her sister with a blank expression, "I should ask you the same thing? Why did you get back so early before Bubbles? Usually she gets home way earlier than the both of us."

Suddenly the door flew open with a gush of wind, and blue streaks only brightened the light. Bubbles was back now, great timing. She stopped with the wind and stared at her sisters, freezing in the space. "Girls! I've got-"

"Something to tell you?" the two sisters synchronously ended the sentence for their youngest sister. Buttercup only stared blankly at Blossom when the leader girl's eyes met with hers.

"Don't tell me that you guys also encountered the Rowdyruff Boys!?" Bubbles exclaimed, but she was still frozen in place. Bubbles knew that they could have had encountered with them individually as well because if Boomer was there, then the rest were probably around town. The three of them didn't move a muscle, and only the sound of gentle winds coming directly at the opened door. Bubbles moved one of her hands to close the door with a "hehe" sound, wondering if it was too much to break the silence that they all didn't know how it started.

After that, they still did not tense up the room. Bubbles sighed, isn't this what happened at her academy as well? Not trying to let them happen again, she broke her frozen position and started to speak in a bunch of stutters, "T-They are _back_… from 4 years ago…"

"Yeah," Buttercup replied, turning her head back to turn on the TV with the remote controller.

"I-I can't believe it," Bubbles said again. She almost seemed like she had waters in her eyes, but that would be very awkward. Was it about all their efforts on winning the Rowdryuff Boys dramatically was a waste?

Blossom sighed, avoiding contact with Bubbles, "We all can't believe it, Bubbles. You know, we actually knew that they were gone… but as years passed, we thought that they were actually dead."

"I-I still remember it," Bubbles' voice deepened. She walked over to the couch and laid freely on it.

The leader girl's eyes, without warning, bulged. "Bubbles! Didn't we tell you not to remember it? I thought that you really forgot all about it!" Blossom yelled, she was reminded of the past that haunted Bubbles 4 years prior to the last time they had seen the boys. Well, it didn't really haunt Bubbles, but it stayed in Bubbles like she had done something wrong before.

"I did! It's just that when I saw him, I… remembered." The pink puff knew Bubbles was going to say a lot more about the situation, but just too shocked to meet up with the boys that she didn't know words existed.

Blossom sunk in defeat, "I never remembered what happened to you, Bubbles. But now you just reminded me of it! I didn't have that experience, but still, they are our enemies!" Blossom was only yelling so loud that she didn't know how bothered Buttercup looked. Why did she have to be the clumsy or loud one at these situations? Buttercup only made no sound about what the two girls were talking about, even though she might know a little or two about it.

_Goodbye._

Simple word. It just only meant farewell, people always say it. But the person who said this haunted Bubbles' mind for nearly a year. But… actually two people said the above word, but one of the two said;

_The truth is, I plan to disappear from this world today. _

It wasn't freaky. But to _disappear from this world_? That had meant dying to Bubbles… or had it meant disappearing from _her_ world? It didn't actually matter if her enemies existed in her world at all, it was just the way how things worked. She also remembered that he had said "It is fine for you guys without us, you three have reached where your goal lies whereas ours have destroyed."

She thought that he meant those words… like sinking into defeat, not bother them anymore. But they are _back_… and it didn't make any sense to what has happened today. Surely when she saw Boomer, she didn't think anything else, just still thought they were enemies and battled and argued with him.

"I just can't believe they are back in four years," Bubbles concluded, watching the TV with Buttercup.

"Yeah, yeah right, who cares," Buttercup rolled her eyes. Even in these kinds of situations, she still didn't take it seriously… the enemies are _back_, you know.

The two younger sisters helplessly watched the TV while Blossom headed to the kitchen. She sat, placing her elbows on the surface of the table while the other hand was resting at her forehead. Trying to think, she gritted her teeth, thinking about what Bubbles had said prior to her arrival. '_Goodbye, huh? Why you?!_'

Blossom totally forgot about everything that happened between her and Brick previously… all the riddles, all the equations, they are all gone. She is just thinking of what the boys meant four years ago when they said _farewell,_ stuck in deep thought. She _probably_ couldn't be the person to trust the boys that easily.

* * *

Over the next few days –being a Saturday- the girls headed out to fight crime after the hotline rang. "A giant monster is attacking the town!" the Mayor had cried. With those words, the girls rushed out to save the town, meeting up with the said monster.

It had several eyes, lots of hands, and no mouth. Buttercup kicked one of the eyes effortlessly; that one eye gradually disappeared from view. Buttercup continued to do that until one of the hands smacked her into a faraway wall. She rubbed her temples and got the idea of spraying ink on the eyes so that it couldn't see anything. She flew to a store for that plan.

Back at the monster, Blossom was calculating and planning on what to do, so stuck in thought that she didn't know where Buttercup had went. Bubbles waited for Blossom to make a plan for several minutes, but then she just attacked the monster anyway. At any rate, without Blossom's help and her focus, Bubbles would be bruised up without knowing how to fight it or where to get stuff to defeat it. Suddenly, Buttercup sprayed ink on the monster, covering up all the eyes… but just when she thought it was over… thought that the ink slid across the monster's skin and thinking that it should be glued to it… the ink fell off to the floor. She only accomplished of spraying it on the eyes; the monster seems to have ink proof skin (if that is a word). The monster, having can't see anything, used its hands to destroy obstacles in its way, destroying buildings and houses.

"A big whoops," Buttercup's cheeks raised to cover up her eyes, grinning dementedly.

Bubbles' hair got bits of the ink; she tried to swing the ink off of her hair. Blossom, finally focused, realized what's happening between her sisters. She shouted, "Buttercup! What have you done! You almost hurt Bubbles!"

Buttercup glared at the pink puff, "Too bad! She was in the way and you weren't planning anything!"

"Excuse me? You didn't wait for me to come up with a plan?"

"Oh hello!? I take brawn over the brains! Don't you remember?"

Blossom gritted her teeth, "We've got to do something now! Buttercup and Bubbles, distract one of its hands! Bring them together and-"

"S-O-R-R-Y! I can't distract the hands if the monster can't see anything!" Buttercup reminded Blossom of her spraying ink so the monster couldn't see a thing. If the monster couldn't see Buttercup or Bubbles flying to one of its hands, then it would just continue to destroy buildings. If the monster could still see, then the hands would just try to grab Buttercup and Bubbles and Blossom's plan of bringing them together could successfully work.

"Ugh!" Blossom raged out. "Remove the ink then!?"

"I can't! There's too many eyes and it'd be hard to hurt an eye! If I remove the ink, then it would lose one of the eyes!"

"How do you know?"

"'Cause I smacked some of them and they disappeared so easily."

"Then why didn't you continue to do that?"

"Too many! And there's way more hands! The hands could just easily punch me while I punch the eyes."

"Yeah, if you punched all of them, then my plan of distracting them won't work either!"

They were still arguing in the air while Bubbles tried to remove the ink out of her _hair_. She sighed at the two puffs arguing, contemplating that nothing could be helped until a loud explosion sounded off. It seems as if it was a fault caused by a precipitous earthquake. Be prepared then.

All three of them gasped at what they saw. The monster had just slouched to the ground, but it still wasn't defeated. But that wasn't the seen that the girls were fixated to… In the corners of the areas were three figures, the Rowdyruff Boys.

They had just helped them distract the monster… from…

"Don't know how to plan a distraction from _behind_?" the leader boy smirked, crossing his arms. His brothers in the back glared at the girls in a fighting stance.

Blossom gritted her teeth, they were helped from their enemies for one distraction and he had just degraded her level of plans. Her fists tightened, she wants to wipe off his existence, "Oh? Says the boy who mentioned _goodbye_."

The Rowdyruff Boys all seemed to react to the sudden mention of the word, but Brick replaced it with another smirk. After all, _he_ was really the person who declared goodbye to _Bubbles_.

* * *

**This chapter seems to have been boring for me to write though; even I can't even write good anymore. I mean, I never made any errors of "their" to "there" or "write" to "right". It was supposed to be a chapter of preparing what's going to happen next, as in the mission. I didn't put too much events in this one, but later on chapters would refer to everyday events like these to keep going.**

**Anyway, it might change a lot for the next chapter though. So following up on fighting the monster, the girls separate to figure out how to handle the situation. Two more monsters appear all of a sudden and Bubbles is left to deal with the original one. What will happen next as the boys do their missions? Surely I will clear some things up as things start to get out of place.**

**So… if you want, slip a review for the story and tell me if you enjoyed it or something. I would appreciate anything from critique, feedback, commentary, or just a positive review. Questions and or concerns regarding the story are also welcomed too.**

**See you guys next week, hopefully…**


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